


Second Thoughts

by iulia_linnea



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-10
Updated: 2012-11-10
Packaged: 2017-11-18 09:17:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/559353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iulia_linnea/pseuds/iulia_linnea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Severus allows himself to forget his past so that he may attend to his future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kateri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kateri/gifts).



> Written on 20 March 2008 in response to [kateri_e](http://kateri-e.livejournal.com/profile)'s prompt of _Severus, Harry, Lily: Severus actually succeeded with Lily at one point, and it casts doubt in Severus mind about the parentage of Harry_.

One memory that Severus hadn't shared with Harry was of his leaving Lily's bedroom through the window one morning—and what he'd been doing there in the first place. That "first" had been his happy memory when needed for years, but, as all memories are wont to do, it had begun to fade, and Severus had longed to replace it. The fact that he'd wanted to replace it with a memory made with _Harry_ troubled him because the prior memory had been made approximately nine months before Harry had been born.

_He's Potter's son. He has to be_ , Severus told himself. _I_ need _him to be James' son_!

Severus needed Harry to be James' son as much as he needed him to be Lily's; he knew that. He also knew that, in the end, it didn't matter, couldn't matter—he wouldn't allow it to matter—because Harry had already determined to make memories of his own.

Stroking Harry's hair, Severus decided not to dwell on the past any longer.

_It's never brought me anything but grief_.

And what Harry didn't know of Severus' suspicions of his present couldn't hurt him.


End file.
